I have almost forgotten about this booking I made three months ago but the fact that it was on a public holiday helped to get my memory back just in time. To be honest, I thought I have all but given up on Mosu Hong Kong since their opening weeks. Their booking system absolutely sucked and it stumbled right off the gate (has since improved a bit). Poor service from the customer service team also didn't help the cause. However, I decided to try my luck again around Chinese New Year and was finally rewarded with a table on the night of Ching Ming Festival. I guess everyone decided to pay respect to their ancestors rather than spend time on fine-dining.
Mosu Hong Kong is of course the offshoot of Mosu Seoul who's the only remaining restaurant in Korea with three Michelin stars now that Gaon has decided to take its time on a re-opening date (or whether to re-open). Whether this has anything to do with it being the most difficult table to book in Hong Kong, I have no idea. But the restaurant is constantly full and it's virtually impossible to get in unless you know somebody who knows somebody. With my lack of connection, I needed a prayer and it was finally answered after more than a year of trying.
There was only one seasonal tasting menu served at Mosu Hong Kong and it's an expensive one at $2,180. Let's hope it's worth the heavy price tag.
Our welcome drink was Makgeolli, or Korean rice wine infused with jasmine tea and perilla. That was the introduction from our server but judging from its color, could it be jasmine tea with Korean rice wine and perilla instead?
We were first started off with a few nibbles from the "Small Bites" section of the menu and first up, a seaweed tart topped with a marinated sea shrimp that looked like a sushi from a certain angle.
It was accompanied by an onion tart with shredded purple onion and refreshing Korean pear juice.
One of chef-founder Sung Ahn's signature dish, chargrilled abalone taco, soon followed. This was a very busy dish with charcoal grilled Korean abalone sandwiched in the middle of a taco shell made of charcoal-grilled tofu skin. There were toppings of shredded perilla leaves, laver and mustard seeds to provide some contrasting textures and flavors to the mix. The abalone was certainly very tender, matching the tofu taco well but I thought the flavors from the perilla was a bit too overpowering at times.
A spinach sponge cake arrived as our final amuse bouche of the night. It was topped nicely with caviar to deliver some explosive flavors to our palate.
Sesame tofu and sea urchin in dashi – Our first starter was one of Mosu's most instagrammable dish, their sesame tofu. This was beautifully presented like a dumpling floating on top of a homemade dashi.
I like the sesame flavor in the tofu, which was complemented wonderfully well by the sea urchin, wasabi and dashi. A really well-executed dish with great balance of flavors.
Rockfish and jinhua ham porridge – We have here a steamed rockfish fillet sitting on top of a warm porridge simmered with Jinhua ham (金華火腿).
Like the previous dishes we had so far, this did not come with heavy seasoning. The only notable seasoning/flavors on the rockfish seemed to come from the umami-rich porridge which I thought was right on the money. (Jelloman seemed to think it's a pretty boring dish though.)
Mackerel with spring vegetables – We've got another fish dish. This one was mackerel from Busan (釜山) which was interestingly matched with herbs, white asparagus and a not-so-fruity strawberry sauce. Definitely my least favorite dish of the night largely due to its fishy, salty and oily taste.
Ember roasted acorn noodles – Mosu's homemade Korean noodles made from acorn flour, were expertly cooked with butter, Parmesan and parsley. They tried to hide them underneath the paper-thin porcini mushrooms.
It wasn't the best looking dish but the noodles were seriously delicious thanks to the rich and tangy sauce.
Hanwoo, bokbunja, black olive – The charcoal grilled Hanwoo beef was served with two different sauces, an intensely rich black olive sauce and, a fruity and floral Korean wild berries sauce.
It was reasonably good but I'd like to see a bit more smokiness from the beef.
Our "palate cleanser" was a cup of warm tea made with green tea from Jeju Island, that came with a hint of chrysanthemum (菊花).
Almond tea – The arrival of Chinese almond tea as our first dessert caught us a little by surprise.
The almond foam blended with Korean perilla oil (taste a bit like sesame oil), produced a very interesting savory-sweet taste. Adding the contrasting temperature to the equation and we've got an excellent dessert to kick off the "Small Sweets" section of the menu.
Lemon rice cake – A combination of lemon peel, rice cake and Korean rice wine. Very zesty and fragrant.
Caramel ice-cream – Another dessert with savory sweet taste. The rich ice-cream was amazingly matched with shallot ashes and burnt leek powder for a sharp contrast of flavors. Just amazing (same goes for the almond tea).
Laver choux – The choux pastry was very nicely done.
It was filled with laver flavored custard cream.
Yakgwa – They always seem to save this for last in a Korean meal due to its sweetness. The fried dough was dipped in a syrup made with honey and ginger.
Like all my meals at Mingles Seoul, they always dazzle me with their sweet stuff to end the meal.
This was indeed a very satisfying dinner (still a bit overpriced I thought). With its location on the M+ rooftop, I was hoping to get a table with a nice harbour view right from its window but unfortunately, we were offered a table on the other side.
Food Rating: 7.7/10
Price: $$$$
Address: 3/F M+ Tower, West Kowloon, 38 Museum Drive, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Kowloon
Tel: +852 2398-0291
Website: https://hk.restaurantmosu.com/
Opening Hours: 6:00pm - 12:00am (Tue - Sun)
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